Andres Acebo is more than just the son of a father who came to the U.S. after fleeing Cuba on a raft, more than a first-generation student who earned an Ivy League education, more than an interim president of New Jersey City University – the youngest person in the state to serve in that position.
He is a realist.
While he is an example of the American Dream, he knows the hurdles his family and his community have overcome still exist. In fact, he told a small gathering last week in Jersey City that those hurdles are growing taller.
On a day when the school announced a partnership with the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to create Hispanic Innovation Business Hub – a place that will bring mentorship, internships and employment to a school whose population is the most diverse in the state – Acebo wasn’t shy about discussing the challenges the communities of his school face.
And that the communities must stand firm.
“There is a rhythm to resilience, a cadence in the way our community moves through this world,” he said. “It pulses through the streets of Jersey City, in the mercados and the bodegas that nourish our generation, in the determined steps of students who wake up before sunrise to chase an education that was never guaranteed to them, in the small businesses built from nothing, in the immigrant who arrives in this country with nothing but hope, who starts over not once, but over and over again.
“Learning a new language, a new system, a new way of belonging, all while carrying the weight of the family they left behind – and the future they’re building ahead. It is the entrepreneur who launches a business from a kitchen table whose accent, so rich with history, culture and wisdom, needlessly invites obstacles from an intolerant world. Yet those whose work ethic turns skepticism into success.”
The remarks, nearly nine minutes in length, packed a punch throughout. The approximately one hundred folks in the room certainly nodded along in agreement.
Acebo is determined to play bigger rooms.
At a time when so many are backing away from DEI programs out of fear, Acebo is speaking up for the impact.
On Feb. 16, he penned a three-page letter to New Jerseys two senators (Cory Booker and Andy Kim) and the Representatives from the Jersey City area (Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver, in answer to the Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague Letter” from the U.S. Department of Education that aims to dismantle all DEI-type programs.
“The Dear Colleague Letter is more than a bureaucratic shift,” he wrote. “It presents a calculated unraveling of the very mechanisms that enable colleges and universities to fulfill their mission of social mobility.
“It does not merely disregard students from underrepresented and under-resourced backgrounds — it seeks to dismantle the intentional investments that have empowered them to persist, to thrive, to graduate, and to lead despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.”
The note is getting noticed.
Acebo said the post of it already has gathered thousands of impressions on social media.
“I’m getting messages from leaders across this country,” he said. “I think it can have significant impact.
“I think it’s the power of example. I think times that are unprecedented call for unprecedented responses.”
And what better place to live that response than Hudson County, the embodiment of the American Dream, Acebo said. A place that truly understands the struggle and the sacrifice.
“The American Dream is not a sprint. It’s not a marathon. It’s a relay race,” he said. “And in our community, we understand that each generation runs their leg, jumping over hurdles, pushing forward, carrying the weight of the past and the promise of the future into steady hands.”
People who understand the history of hurdles, Acebo said.
“We know the truth,” he said. “Opportunity has always been conditional for communities like ours. Access has always been rationed. Investment has always been questioned.
“And when we rise, when we claim our space at the table, there are always those who try to pull the chair out from beneath us.”
The agreement with the Hispanic Chamber and the Hub it creates is foundational – and generational – Acebo said.
“It is not just about economic development, it’s about defiance – and it’s a declaration that we will not wait for permission to prosper,” he said.
“It is a promise to our students, our businesses, our familias, that we will not be left behind in decisions that shape our economy and our future. Yet today, like in the weeks that have passed, we are met with an obstacle not born of circumstance, but of deliberate choice.”
That’s why Acebo is so eager to speak out. It’s an effort to educate a group that may not want to be educated.
Call it inclusion. Call it equity. Call it a willingness to recognize diversity.
“The notion that talent exists beyond the corridors of privilege has long unsettled those who paid nothing for admission,” Acebo said. “So, they move to raise the cost, not just in dollars, but in obstacles and indignities in a system designed to make our community question whether it belongs at all.
“Whether cloaked in the language of reform or advocacy, policies that limit opportunities for underrepresented people, or a shared challenge, calls into question our collective commitment to ensuring that all have a seat at the table.”
The Hispanic Innovation Business Hub will help do just that, Acebo said.
“It is not just a space, it is a statement that our presence here is not temporary. That our contributions to the state, this economy and this country are not secondary.
“That they are essential.”
